UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENTRead it through a couple of times. Highlight key wordsany main prompting words and any action words. CHOOSE a WORKABLE PROMPT/TOPICMost instructors offer more than one option for a research paper. If you have a choice, decide which prompt you will do according to which you want to do, that which you have interest in. You must do what interests you--otherwise you will be miserable through the researching and writing phases and your reader(s) will be miserable reading it.What if you dont care for any of the options?
Writing about Nazism in ten pages will not be sufficient space to cover everything needing coverage; the five most heinous medical atrocities practiced on men at Auschwitz will.DEVELOP A WORKING THESIS--While you search for topics/themes that interest you, and later, as you narrow the topic, you will have to come up with a point, a main point, so the paper doesnt just hang there with a bunch of facts/ideas stacked on it.Ask yourself those curious questionsthen answer them. The answer(s)written down in complete sentence(s)will be your thesis statement(s).Consider what if scenarios